Hello Fellow Asthestes,
Today I write to you with a bit of nostalgia in mind. I was listening to some cd's on my way to work today. Bach? Mozart? Boulez? No. I was listening to a cd I had put together featuring songs fro artists that would be considered 1 hit wonders. This Cd had a hip-hop flavor to it. Some of my favorites include:
Kieth Murray - The most beautifullest thing. This song was a teast as to the emerging talent of one Mr. Kieth Murray. Erick Sermon, 1/2 of EPMD was solidly behind kieth murray, and murray had some hot fire lyrics on guest spots. The only song that did anything was this titular song from The Most Beautifullest Thing cd. Rhymes took a back seat to storytelling and rapping
Pete Rock and CL Smooth- T.R.O.Y(They remenisce over you). This song worked on so many different levels, I thought that they were on par with the deep lyrics or KRS one and more recently, Mos Def and talibe Kwali. TROY tells the story of a young man growing up, and recounting his story for the audience. The song also serves as a tribute to the brother of Cl Smooth. It is a song that makes you think about what kind of legacy you leave behind after you have gone. Deep on so many levels.
Craig Mack - Flava in your Ear. The ugliest rapper of all time has tight for the time lyrics. He gets extra credit for a sizzling hot remix featuring the heavyweight rappers of all time. Still, since it was only a remix, it is still technically the same song. References to UPS still hiring, Uniblab(a robot from the tv show the Jetsons), and a Busta Rhymes imitation as he says the whole world will explode when he busta rhyme. Silly and fun.
The Sugar Hill Gang - the kings of the one hit wonder. I am talking sbout the 14 minue opus that was Rappers Delight. This song set the precedent for storytelling, being silly, stealing a phat bassline from another song, and having a good time. Not much else to say except that the song gets bonus points for the story about bad cooking and a bottle of kaopectate. Trendsetting.
K-Solo (Your mom's in my business) and Special Ed (The mission) get special mention because they had good songs but were mostly niche pieces. K-Solo was trying to get into the whole LL COOL J method of rapping and telling a story aithout being hardcore or filthy. Special Ed was like the Weird Al Yankovic of the rap world with comic stories of adventures. Both were good for the time. We could easily put songs like Skee Lo's I Wish( I were Taller), and Ahmad Back in the days (I sit and wish I was a kid again) here as well.
Until next time, I will be keeping these songs alive in my Ipod.
Raphael De la Ghetto
Coogi down to the socks
Expert in art.
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